Field Service Heroes: Working in ServiceMax Better & Faster [Salesforce Navigation]

I want to get connected with others who are working in ServiceMax and Salesforce every day. Does that sound like you?

For this first post, I’m hoping to hear from other customers who are interested in collaborating around field service, cloud software, ServiceMax.

Are you your team’s subject matter expert? Are you looking to become one?

Please reply if you are interested in the topics below, if you have a similar goals for your team, or if you are just checking this out and could be interested in the future. Let’s build a group of people who want to share and learn together - comment to get involved!

I’m a member of the ServiceMax VIP Program and the Community Champions group here on the ServiceMax Community. I was interviewed by Deirdre Yee regarding the blog series I’m authoring: Field Service Heroes: Working in ServiceMax Better & Faster. I’m excited to share my insights around field service software with this community, and I really want to get the conversation going with other members. The ServiceMax Community can be a great place to help people and to get help from others in the industry. When you put questions out there, you’ll see responses!

So what is my blog series, Field Service Heroes: Working in ServiceMax Better & Faster, about?

Like the title says, it is focused on tips that help field service team members get their work done faster. A small change might save you 20 seconds. If you have to go through that process dozens of times a day, you'll notice the great amount of time you can save and how meaningful it is. It’s taken me years to find these tricks and shortcuts. Sometimes the most efficient way forward is not obvious.

If you work in ServiceMax and Salesforce, there are many resources available, and in some ways that makes things easier. There are a series of helpful resources like training videos, Field Service University courses, release webinars, and design time events on this platform. And on the salesforce​ side, theTrailhead training program is a great asset.

But in some ways there are too many sources of information. Trailhead is weeks of training. That’s not something you can wade through in your first week on the job. When you look at all the training offered, it might not be something you can master in your first year.

I’m hoping this blog series will help people hone in on the simple items that will increase their productivity and efficiency.

I’d also like to incorporate input from others. For each post, we can make this a collaborative conversation. I’ll consolidate the tips we share so that it is a living, evolving, and growing document.

What topics will we cover?

Salesforce Navigation

Tips for searching, browsing the Salesforce browser, basic information on customizing the work order view

One of the best sessions that I attended at Maximize was MunMun's SFM course. During the session she showed how to configure a 'Multi-source Process' within an SFM to launch an SFM Process in the background from within an SFM and also talked about best practice of defining 'Field Sets' in order to make the SFM more efficient. I've already talked to my lead developer about both of these items and we're excited to make our config faster for our end users. We use a great deal of SFM functionality including: literals in SFM mapping, SFM formulas, Handovers, and Scheduled SFMs to enhance our offline capabilities.

I think it would be interesting to have an in-depth session on SFM features and best practices. Specifically, I would like to learn more about 'Advanced Lookup filters' in SFMs which can filter records based on fields of related objects. It was really helpful to work through a business use case to see practically how the functionality can enable the business. Copying MunMun MalikAnita D'SouzaLisa Mercer​ bio-rad​

For those who have said they are interested in this, here is a list of the areas I am considering covering in the blog series. Please share any tips and tricks you have with me directly or as a comment on this blog so I can include them. Also please share any other areas you would like to see covered.

A couple of things i would like to hear about, one would be testing tools, for version upgrade and development testing, and something about Web Services, and how to set them up and develop and test them, its something we are being ask for more and more.

Global Business Systems Analyst
Working with Pitney Bowes and the ServiceMax solution since 2011. I have worked on deploying ServiceMax to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada and the US. I have worked on support, business analysis, architectural reviews, design, requirements gathering, implementation, testing management etc.
I am a certified ServiceMax Advanced Administrator.
NB: Any views/suggestions/recommendations given on this community are my own and do not represent the views/ recommendations/suggestions of Pitney Bowes.